Salmon Provencale

So last night I made the most expensive in house dinner EVER, but it was totally worth it. Its based on a recipe from Simply Recipes, a very reliable food blog. The recipe was for salmon with a cold tomato salsa. The biggest change I made was that I cooked the sauce. It would probably be good the other way too, but I really liked how my version turned out.

 I bought a nice tail piece of Coho salmon, rubbed it with olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt and roasted it at 400 for about 12 minutes. I didn't overcook it! This is mainly because Oliver took it out of the oven and forbid me from returning it. Talk about easy.

The sauce was really easy, too. I cut up three shallots and sauteed them in olive oil until they were soft. I then added three minced cloves of garlic and cooked for another minute. FYI, I have decided that cutting up garlic with a knife is far superior to using the press. I then added three diced large tomatoes. Here's what took it over the top: they were heirloom tomatoes! I'm on such an heirloom tomato kick. They're not outrageously expensive this time of year and they are so good. Then I added 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and 1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar. I've heard of white balsamic vinegar, which might be good in this context, since the the regular stuff diminishes the gorgeous color of the tomatoes. I also put in a little sea salt. I let that cook down for a while, maybe 15 minutes. When I was just about to take it off the heat I added 1 Tbsp each basil and tarragon and let it cook for about a minute. The recipe also called for chives, but I didn't have those. I loved the way it turned out. It went perfectly with the salmon.

I was partially inspired to make such a nice dinner because my friend Emily came over. Emily is not a particularly adventurous cook herself, but she is a very appreciative eater.  Once, when we were young first year grad students cooking for ourselves for the first time, I made her vegetarian chili out of a box. She still asks me to make this for her. I said I would this time, but then surprised her with this salmon dish. I don't think she minded too much.

My take on Highland Lodge Blueberry Muffins

from Williams and Sonoma Muffins and Quick Breads

I'm not sure Jo has the highland lodge muffin recipe (I know mom does), but I wanted to share with you my take on the recipe. I made it today and smoked several curious roommates out of their rooms with the delicious odor. These are a favorite of Michael's. I changed the spices, leavening, and amount of fruit from the original recipe.

2 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c sugar
2 T baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
1 c milk
½ c unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 pint blueberries
1 very ripe banana

fresh blueberries are best. If you use frozen, stir into batter without thawing. Baking time will increase.

Preheat oven to 400F. Butter muffin tins.

In a medium bowl stir and toss together the dry ingredients and sugar. Set aside.
In another medium bowl whisk milk, butter & eggs together until smooth.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until blended.
Add blueberries; stir until just incorporated.

Spoon into prepared tins; fill each cup ~ ¾ full.
Bake until toothpick inserted to center comes out clean: 15-20 min.
Cool in tins 5 min; remove.

Makes ~16 std muffins.

We haven't had to cook much so far in Baltimore, as there have been so many school events that include dinner. I suppose that's the surest way to convince a graduate student to come to something. Anyhow, Michael made a marvelous lasagna for me earlier in the week that we enjoyed as leftovers for several additional meals. I'll try to get him to do a guest post, or maybe just try to reproduce it later in the week and let you know how it's made.

Late night beans

So last Saturday night I came home quite late and was greeted by an already passed out (as in asleep) boyfriend. I had been anti-socially working late and he had been at a yeast centric cookout, by which I mean it was attended mainly by yeast geneticists. Anyways, I was quite hungry and we didn't have much food, but I russled up cans of beans and diced tomatoes. I sauteed some onions and garlic and dumped in the beans. I was going to add the diced tomatoes and some chopped cilantro and call it dinner. However, to my chagrin, the can labeled diced tomatoes actually contained tomato sauce! A curse upon your house, Muir Glenn Organics. Well, what was I to do? It was late and I really had nothing else going for me, so I dumped in the unwelcomed tomato sauce, let it simmer, and tried a little. It was really not what I was going for. But then I remembered ... I had chicken stock!

Having an open carton of Pacific valley organic chicken stock is a really wonderful piece of refrigerator insurance. Whenever things are going wrong, or just don't seem quite right, adding that stock usually helps. I'm reading this wonderful book right now called "A Taste of Country Cooking" by Edna Lewis. It's really a gem of a book. Edna Lewis grew up in a small farming community in Orange county, Virginia, in the early part of this century. She writes with  beautiful nostalgia about how her community's way of life was centered around the earth and the kitchen. One of her many wise recollections is that when there was a Virginia ham in the smokehouse, one could face any culinary challenge with confidence. I don't have a smokehouse, and if I did I doubt I could find a Virginia ham here in Berkeley, but I guess I sort of feel that way about my carton of stock. It makes so much possible. So I added a good amount of stock to my bean concoction and let it simmer a while. Then I stirred in the cilantro, put it in a bowl, and had it topped with feta cheese. It was very satisfying, if not what I had envisioned when I set out. After doing a few dishes I crawled into bed with a full stomach, and Oliver mumbled something about "have you been cooking?" I guess it smelled good, too.

A Crisp in search of 59 Candles

Reeves's Birthday dessert! 4 small pears from our tree, peeled and thinly sliced, spread on the bottom of the pan, topped with a pint of blackberries from Potomac Vegetable Farms along with some lemon juice, then topped with a crumble made of 1 c. oats, 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, 3/4 c. brown sugar, 3/4 c. almonds, and 1 t. salt, mixed with enough roasted almond oil (probably 1/4 cup or more) to make a crumble. I cooked it at 400 for about 30 minutes, until it started to brown. Surprising how sweet it was! We served it with the bottle of Mas de Gourgoinier from Les Baux that Michael had given us for our b'days.

Nectarine Salsa (Mango Indigation gets over it)

Again for fish - - this time, mahi mahi, poached in cheap white wine:

Chop
2 nectarines
1 fairly thin slice of vidalia onion
1" off of a jalapeno

Squirt on juice of 1/2 lime

Instantly takes the sweetness off of the nectarines, leaving a very piquant and interesting salsa.

Nectarine Nugget

Suzanne and Michael were here the week of August 11. It being Restaurant Week, we didn't cook that much, but Michael proposed and executed one delicacy: at Suzanne's suggestion, he sprinkled ground cloves and cinnamon on the tops of nectarine halves. Then he broiled them, sliced side up toward the broiler, placing a preheated cooling rack on their tops (we had to adapt what was probably a superior method he saw on tv involving a grill). He removed them from the oven after a few minutes of broiling and filled the pit pits with a mixture of Skyris Icelandic yogurt (which I think Jody had once recommended) and honey, and topped the mound with roasted slivered almonds. Divine!

Its been a while ...

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! But neither have you two :(. Its not due to lack of cooking. I have a back log of recipes I'd like to share with you as I have been on a bit of cooking binge lately. I just haven't had time to post them. Some recent highlights are : lemon ginger chicken (Robin you would love this - it involves ginger and seasame seeds), creamy mustard mushroom chicken (made with fat free sour cream, Dad could eat it!), turkey chili, teryaki eggplant tofu stir fry (there you go Suzanne), and poached salmon with cucumber and dill sauce (decidedly not as good as broiling). 

I also made a soy ice cream cake for a friend's thirtieth birthday party last night, and I got a t-shirt out of it! He had t-shirts that said "Danimal's dirty thirty" made as prizes for the dance off, but I got one for the cake, which was lucky because there were some serious dancers ther eand I really didn't have a shot at winning.

But, I was inspired to write this post because lately I've been getting many of my recipe ideas from the banner RSS feed on my gmail account. Its been great; its like google knows what I want to eat. However, I just got a really mystifying RSS feed:

"Men Bra - Bras.Pront.com - 10+ Male bras at Great Prices Shop, Compare and Save at Pronto"

It kind of reassures me that google really can't read my mind. On the other hand, if I'm an overweight transgendered person in 20 yrs we'll know they can predict future.